Answers

*MSN I have provided proof that it is FALSE ABOUT RICHARD GERE AND
THE GERBIL.There is usuallly some person making up things.
cappuccino,

Claim: A pleasure-seeking male makes a a trip to the emergency room
to have a gerbil removed from his rectum.
Status: False.

Example: [Gibbs and Ross, 1996]

The following is a true account:
A 26-year-old male arrives at the ER complaining of rectal bleeding.
He is too embarrassed to provide an accurate history but provides the
examing doctor a clue: "There might be something stuck in my rear
end." Examination reveals a non-tender abdomen, but a rectal exam
shows blood coming from his anus. A speculum exam reveals bloody
stool and a dead gerbil. Apparently, through the cardboard tubing
from a paper towel roll, the rodent had been forced into his rectum.
Once the animal was in, the tube was pulled out.

The idea is that as the gerbil suffocates, it scratches and claws at
the lining of the rectum, providing an intense sensation to the
patient. The rodent should then have been defecated, but the swelling
and bleeding had caused the retention of the animal. The patient
required pain medication and antibiotics after the animal was
removed, but was then allowed to go home.

Origins: Contrary to widespread public belief, "gerbil-stuffing"
is unknown as an actual sexual practice, nor has a verified medical
case of a gerbil (or other rodent) having been extracted from a
patient's rectum ever been reported. (Despite the assiduousness with
which doctors record unusual items removed from patients' rectums in
order to write them up as illustrative cases , a medical journal
article involving a gerbil removal has yet to surface.) The notion of
gerbilling (not necessarily restricted to homosexuals -- the
insertion of items into the rectum for purposes of autoeroticism is
practiced by heterosexuals as well) appears to be pure invention, a
tale fabricated to demonstrate the depravity with which "faggots"
allegedly pursue sexual pleasure.

Like similar legends such as The Promiscuous Rock Star, this tale has
been applied to various public figures who are known or believed to
be homosexual, and it has stuck with one in particular: Richard Gere.
Although the legend homed in on various targets when it first
appeared (including a Philadelphia newscaster), it has clung
tenaciously to Mr. Gere's name since at least the mid-1980s. Rumors
that he had an emergency "gerbilectomy" at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in
California have spread far and wide, and countless doctors and nurses
claim to have participated in, been on hand during, or heard from a
reliable colleague about, the procedure. (Cedars-Sinai is apparently
the best-staffed hospital in the world, since several hundred
different doctors and nurses were reportedly on duty at the time Mr.
Gere was allegedly brought in for treatment.) The rumor's spread was
aided by an anonymous prankster who, not long after the film Pretty
Woman led to a tremendous increase in Gere's popularity, flooded fax
machines in Hollywood with a phony "press release" purportedly issued
by the Association for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, claiming
that Gere had "abused" a gerbil. But, as a reporter from The National
Enquirer found when he attempted to track down the gerbil story,
there were no facts to be had.

Versions of the following gerbilling fiction date back at least to
1993 when a faked United Press International item appeared on the
Internet, one that named Vito Bustone and Kiki Rodriguez of Lake
City, Florida, as the accident victims. (The gerbil's name was
withheld by request of the family.) Other versions have been falsely
attributed to the Los Angeles Times with the events said to have
taken place in Salt Lake City, Utah. Rest assured that neither news
outlet ever published a news article about these fictitious events:

"In retrospect, lighting the match was my big mistake. But I was only
trying to retrieve the gerbil," Eric Tomaszewski told bemused doctors
in the Severe Burns Unit of Salt Lake City Hospital. Tomaszewski, and
his homosexual partner Andrew "Kiki" Farnum, had been admitted for
emergency treatment after a felching session had gone seriously
wrong.
"I pushed a cardboard tube up his rectum and slipped Raggot, our
gerbil, in," he explained. "As usual, Kiki shouted out 'Armageddon,'
my cue that he'd had enough. I tried to retrieve Raggot but he
wouldn't come out again, so I peered into the tube and struck a
match, thinking the light might attract him."

At a hushed press conference, a hospital spokesman described what
happened next. "The match ignited a pocket of intestinal gas and a
flame shot out the tube, igniting Mr. Tomaszewski's hair and severely
burning his face. It also set fire to the gerbil's fur and whiskers
which in turn ignited a larger pocket of gas further up the
intestine, propelling the rodent out like a cannonball."

Tomaszewski suffered second degree burns and a broken nose from the
impact of the gerbil, while Farnum suffered first and second degree
burns to his anus and lower intestinal tract.

Additional information: If you're really interested in things
people put up their rear ends, here's the page for you. Also, listen
to a radio announcer break up as he attempts to read the faux
newspaper article quoted above as a straight news story.

Rectal foreign bodies page

The Rectal Rodent on radio

Sightings: Look for some tongue-in-cheek references to the Gere-bil
in the 1996 film Scream. Also, passing mention is made to this rumor
during a student bull session in 1998's Urban Legend. As well, in an
episode of television's The Vicar of Dibley ("The Easter Bunny";
original air date 8 April 1996), Geraldine (Dawn French) remarks upon
Richard Gere's sexiness by saying she wouldn't have minded being the
hamster.